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Thursday, May 24, 2012

A change of strategy

Last night my Venturing crew was supposed to have a party. Two of our members are graduating from High School this week and the others wanted to throw a party for them. It has been on our calendar for at least two months.

When I got there last night, we had only two Venturers. Neither were the ones graduating from High School, and neither of them was the activity chair for this activity. Not having anything else to do, we set up a game of "ultimate bowling." (It's like regular bowling, but you do it in the church gym using whatever you can find for pins and a basketball for a ball. There are also chairs set up as obstacles, and you have to bowl from the stage.)

Part way through our game, two others showed up, including the activity chair. He didn't have anything planned or prepared, despite having been given reminders as recently as Monday.

After our game of ultimate bowling, we held a reflection. One of the things that came up was that if your current strategy (for knocking down the pins) isn't working, it can be a good idea to change your strategy. You just might find something that works better.

I got thinking about this after the activity and decided that maybe I need to change my strategy with these young men. I will almost immediately lose two of them to graduation, the singles ward, and missions. That includes our crew president, who has been the one to really pull the others along the last year or so. I already have one who almost never comes due to work and two that just plain never come. That gives me two who are there faithfully almost every week, unless there is a sports event.

I will have one Teacher move up to join us this fall, but I don't remember seeing him an an activity in the last four years anyway, so that might not help me much.

I'm not sure what I need to do, but I think a change of strategy is in order. We haven't been having great activities lately. We have had great ideas, but they just haven't translated into action. Maybe my team development is at a lower stage and needs a bit more leadership from the top. I almost wonder if I need to go back to the beginning--start from scratch, as it were.

Whatever the case, my current strategy doesn't seem to be working any more, and I think I need a change. I just need to figure out what to try next....

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About Me

I live with my wife and two children in Utah.
I served for 4 years in the young mens program with the Venturing crew before being called to the Bishopric where I served for about 9 months as 2nd Counselor and Chartered Organization Representative. I am currently serving as the bishop in my ward.